Show the veto rower power SALE SALT sant lare LAKE CITY feb 1874 E kailor aitor ailor deseret Deser ct news in in a silo short rt article in the NEWS a few days ago the tile governato rial vete veto power was called in question since that time nothing ha has appeared controvert ing the tile position therein assumed that the organic act of the territory conferred no mate rate power upon the governor it IL ix is true that position and accompanying brief argument have been ridiculed but ridi ridicule culo I 1 is s not argument nor is it at bee bce beet aba t more than a ayery areny poor hollow u matis watis factory and inadequate substitute for argument I 1 have heard people deplore the tile existence of the absolute absolu ie veto power exercised by tile tiie governor but it if they go to the organic act to see nhat what j therein furnish ad fed for the exercise of such a power they will discover so far as that act is concerned that the governor has no authority to assume absolute veto power that lie he lias has no authority to assume any veto power at alltha miltha all nil tha all the veto power which he can derive from that act comes of neglect of duty plainly specified elfie cilie d certainly failure to per fol tom a plain duty Is id tilo tile most moat complete lete late I 1 and absolute of all vetoes so yr far as the effects of such defection am are concerned but it is an entirely unjustifiable and highly censurable asumption of power negative power by dereliction whis this anisis is rather a startling conclusion to come to but it appears to oneto me to be unavoidable and consequently the free and ostentatious use which lias has been made or of this veto power one can regard in no other light than that ot of an unwarrantable ran table usurpation if the organ jo jc act is to be considered the source of the veto power I 1 will go to the act These the je cowl coni section says mys tile the governor shall approve alt hit laws passed by tile the legislative isla tive assembly before they shall take effect this Is the only passage that I 1 can find in the act re fening to the governors approval roval pt the acts of the leg E ia lature and upon this slender basis what is termed the absolute veto power rests the more one considers ers ors this tile tho more hanging changing the figure ure one is likely to excia exclaim lm yeat reat e at I 1 heavens on an what a slender tr aelread allread r ad d hang C such stupendous things n g I 1 the he act says the governor shall up approve rove all acts passed by tile the legislative id idla isla tivo tive assembly before they hey shall take tako efrost the governors approval which ma maans ans here libi hia oni clyal cial elal signature to that enact shall be given to all ball laws passerby pass edby the legislative assembly before the they y shall take effect or become law that approval shau be given and after that approval has been given by unavoidable implication the acts bhatt shail become law or the laws shall take effect novy nosy low row upon the strength of that line iffie in in the organic act what does doas the governor proceed to do he hb takes uron upon himself to approve such acts passed by the assembly as he pleases and to disapprove the rest sometimes the disapproved ones exceeding the tile number ur or of the approved ones with his disapproval lie ho also sends a message to the legislature and sometimes also takes occasion to improve the tile opportunity to lecture the members because they do not adopt ills his suggestions 1 gest ions lons Is not that a rather tall piece of presumption can the tile governor show the first word in the organic act that requires him to send scud a message C to the assembly at all upon any occasion I 1 can not find tile the first reference in that act to the governor being required to do any such thing it is true he is not forbidden to do it but so far as the organic actis aetis act is concerned lie he is not required to do it the message business therein is ignored ign ored and con it is left as a mere matter of courtesy discretion and accommodation between tile the governor and the assembly if he sends a message to the assembly it may therefore be fairly presumed to be at his own election and merely to aid in the dispatch of public business but lie he is not obligated by organic law to send any such message lie he is merely required to approve all laws passed by the assembly the president of the united states is expressly required to send messages to coll congress 0 ress the vic constitution says lle ile lie he shall from time to time to the congress information of state of the union and recommend to ther consideration such measures as he shall shail judge necessary yand and expedient thus the president is authorized and aud it is made his plain duty sell seil send seti messages to congress but the organic act of utah makes no such requirement of the governor ef r the territory the tile president is also required by the constitution when he tie disapproves of an act congress Con gres to return it with his objections thereto to that body but the organic act does not give the governor of utah the power to disapprove the acts of the legislative assembly As consequently there ls is J no provision in that act for him to in turm torm that body of ills hia re reasons afons for disapproval the word shall shail in the person in which it is used in the passage in in question from the organic act plainly plainly implies duty obligation it t is the plain duty therefore of the governor to approve all acts passed by the tiie assembly he is up under obligation to do it the organic ne ac t requires it at his hands where then is the veto power where is the absolute yeto power where is the justification for the option which the governor takes either to approve or to disapprove as he pleases thava thaes the question if ho he has any such aut authority hority he be does not derive it from the organic act some refer nefer to the veto pa fower power of the president of bf the united states and reason that a governor should have a similar power but that is 18 llo lio nothing thing to the question the rho constitution of the united st states ates expressly provides for the veto the president thereof and lays down the duty of congress in case of the exercise of that power so as to render one man mad tile 10 lo president incapable of blocking the wheels of legislation r against the will of corier congress e s q he here r e 1 ia what the constitution says stays upon tile the subject t every very bill have passed the house of representatives and the senate shall before it becomes a law be presented to the resident of the united states if tie fie ie approve he lie shall sign it but if not he lie shall return it with his objections to that house in which it shall have originated who sh shtil shall til enter the object objections Tons at large on oil their journal and in proceed to reconsider it if after such reconsiders lon tion ion two thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill it shall shail be sent together with the objections objection to 0 the other house by which it shall likewise be rc reconsidered considered and ir f approved by two thirds of that houge house it shall shail become a law but in all such sueh eis eks Sis 1 esthe votes of bot hot both 4 houses shall bo be determined by y yeas sand and nays rind and the names of the persons voting for and riga ziga against irist aho the bill shall bo be entered on the journal of each eath oath if any bill shall not be returned by the president within ten days sunday excepted after it shall have been presented to him the same shall be a wv la in like manner as if he had signed it unless the congress by their adjournment prevent its return in which case it shall not be a law every order resolution or vote to which tile tiie concurrence of the senate and house of representatives may be necessary except in a question of adjournment shall be presented to the president of the united states and before the same shall take of effect shall be approved by him or being disapproved by him shall be by two thirds of the senate and house of representatives according to the tile rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill but the organic act of this territory confers confer no veto power upon the governor on the contrary the act Ac tactually actually denies iland it and therefore contains no provision for the action of the legislature in case of veto it maybe maybo may be urged that the word shall in the passage quoted from the organic act is permissive and means may but cut that can never n c ver be allowed if the word shall m means e ans aus may mav why was it not written may mayy mavy if the tile governor mav may approve then he mayfair mav may ait ail to approve if the passage means tile the governor vernor J may approve all laws passed by the legislative assembly before they shall swall take effect the inference is is in inevitable evitable and therefore undeniable that lie he may or may not just as he pleases and it does not matter mattera a hg rig which way his choice goes because if lie he may approve them before they shall talo take effect he may also aiso jall fail to approve them before they shall take effect and consequently in this case the affirmative or the negative the active or the passive on the part of the governor n or will have precisely the same virtue will amount to exactly ta tile e same thing and that is noth loth nothing ilig at all it is truly a big assumption to say that shall approve means may disapprove or may fail to approve such suell an assumption can inno in no wise be sustained unless the rule supposed to prevail in love prevails also in law the rule of contrary that an affirmative means a negative and a negative an affirm affirmative ati ve that hat yes means no and no means ye yes s that duty means option and option means duty that obligation means permission and permission means obligation Ot berwise otherwise I 1 cannot conceive how by any possible method or stretch of constructive interpretation by any mysterious intellectual legerdemain legerdemain or wonderful sleight of pen or tongue the obligatory he shall approve can be made to mean the permissive he may disapprove in my illy opinion the most ingenious torturing in of language would fall fail to make tg that transformation of meaning ac septable cep ep table tabie but if not therl then language I 1 has las no definite or trustworthy meaning definitions are entirely farcical and words are mere shuttlecocks tle tie cocks s nying hying from one meaning to its op polte opposite just as they are banded about by interested parties such a conclusion however as this last cannot be entertained as it would result in anarchy of ian language and would reduce all human thought t and expression to chaos we must abide b by y the evident eviden and tand accepted meaning of words and phrases the intent of the law should be taken into con eon considers consideration sidera tion tiou but it must be an intent fairly deducible from not diametrically opi PO cosite site to the text test ot ol the law I 1 take position on the organic act which the governor is so fond or 0 f quoting upon that act a aa it stands with such meaning as may be fairly and rationally not unfairly and irrationally inferred by no acknowledged method of interpretation whatever that I 1 am aware of cau can that act bo be made to mean the exact opposite of what it expressly declares the organic act hayg says the tile governor may grant pardons or reprieves here lie he has discretionary power he has option to geant grant or refuse to grant batitis but nut it is not so with the veto power in that regard the act gives the governor no option whatever but it says lie he slide shall approve all lairs passed by the legislative assembly not one law hot two laws not half a dosen dozen not hot a portion odthe of them til ill not such as he chooses but ail all all ail does not mean merely three fourths or halt hali orone or one fourth or a part but every one without without a solitary exception the legisla ture uto ute may pass or not pass certain laws but when passed tho the governor shall shail shall shail approve not ais als disapprove approve not veto all of them thep Heig he hall hail ap prove not may disapprove of course he be can fall to approve so can any other officer or man mau fall fail dall fail to do ills his specified duty but america expects every man mail and especially every official to do his duty not to slink out of it not to nail fail to do it and then boldly attempt to justify himself in his dere dereliction llAlon A governor who neglects to da lifs his duty Is not fit to bo be a governor and so fat rat as that particular duty is concerned lie he is no longer governor for lie ire virtually put puts him eif elf out of office abdicates it decapitates decapita tes himself commits official suicide becomes an off omm leial official felo de se yet strange to say the governor does take this organic prohibition of the veto as a conferring or authorizing of the veto power this obligation gato to approve as a to disappio ove uve or to fail tail to approve was there ever such inconsistency steney 0 elsewhere Ise lse where the act reads that the governor shail shah approve buti buts he reads it ula VIA til it the tile governor shall sto sim disapprove whenever lie he thinks proper er what an unfounded assumption to bo be sure the organic act in defining the duties of the secretary of the territory has the following language ho he shall record recerd and preserve all the laws ard proceeding proceedings or of the legislative assembly hereinafter constituted and all the acts and proceedings of the governor in ills his executive department he shall transmit one copy of the laws and one copy of the tile executive proceedings oil on or before the first daylor day of december in each year to tile the president of the tho united states State sand and at the same time two copies of tile the laws to the speaker of the house of representatives and the president t of the senate for lor the use of congress Is the secretary liero liere given any option in regard to the performance of these duties can he be please himself whether or not lie he records and preserves all the lawsond laws and proceedings ce of the legislative assembly and all the executive acts and proceedings of the governor can the secretary please himself whether or not he sends a copy of said laws and executive proceedings on mor mon or before december in ini each year to the president ef the united states and nt at th mme emme e time copies of said laws to the speaker of the rouse house of representatives and the president of the senate no most assuredly not in these duties during tho the secretary has na cholee choice he shall record and preserve nil all the laws and tile the legislative proceeding and governato rial executive proceedings ce he shall transmit one copy of said laws and said executive proceedings to the president and two copies of said laws to the speaker of the house and the president of tile the senate on or br before a specified time each year the secretary is under obligation to record all said laws and proceedings and transmit copies of tile the same as here stated it is his express onni official 1 ell eil duty precisely the tile same language langua gd is used concerning the duty althe of the governor to apar approve ove all laws pt passed ased by the assembly ho he shall approve them he has no mero mere option or choice in the matter of approving the laws than the secretary has in the matter of recording them the duty duly of both is expressed in similar language it is the governors express duty to approve all the laws and the seere Secre secretary express duty to record all of them hence the governor is no more mord justified in failing falling t to approve than the |